home, sweet sweet home.

It’s official; money has been paid, details have been negotiated, endless paperwork has been completed, keys have been exchanged, tears & hugs have been had, stress-filled “This ISN’T FUN and I DON’T LIKE THIS” have been uttered dramatically more than once, but it’s official! 

We bought a house! 

We. Bought. A. HOUSE. We’re HOMEOWNERS! We figured we were so good at being roommates, we should make it a forever kinda thing. 

After the old place sold in December, we moved in with my parents into their basement, to be able to live rent free while we searched for houses; to avoid having to buy something too quickly to do the proper research, and because the rental market in the Okanagan is bananas. My parents = angels. Literally, time & again they've proven that, but I could devote an entire blog post to all the many ways. And while it's been AMAZING, and I'm so thankful they got to know Jake so much over the last 4 months, we all want our own space back. I want to run a household again!! I miss it. Although I'm going to miss living with my wellness obsessed mom the most, for sure. Jake does not nearly share the enthusiasm for new grain free bread, or how potent my moringa powder is. 

We had been “looking” since last summer, but didn’t want to even think twice about a place until ours had actually sold. Unfortunately that meant we were looking in the dead of winter when the inventory could basically best be described as “meh, let’s jack up the price and see if it sells”. There was a rough patch there for about a month or two where everything we saw was just, not right. Or, literally the places we looked at were so old that we were basically guaranteed to be bunking in with future asbestos, but we'd be fine if we "didn't disrupt it" :|. We (okay fine, me) were starting to get desperate & despondent seeing the prices of houses rising continually, while the actual quality of the houses was declining at the same rate; I was trying to accept the fact that our house was going to cost thousands of dollars just to get it into this decade of décor & functionality, and that we would be left with no savings for any future adventures. Things were looking bleak, although silver lining was that if we were at my parents still come summertime, they do have a pool ;). it's much easier to be despondent poolside. 

But then, OH but then. This house came into our focus by accident (as ALL good things do, in my opinion), so we decided that yes we would go look at it, basically if nothing else to satisfy our parents. It’s more in the country as opposed to actually in town, which wasn’t our first choice but ideally we do want to end up in Coldstream, and this is Coldstream adjacent; so it was worth keeping an open mind and looking at. We both had our reservations about it, mainly Jake not wanting to add the commute to his day, but we decided why the hell not, let’s look. And, truth time, I broke the rule: don’t fall in love with the house before it’s a done deal. But it MADE ME. You guys, it made me. It hits every little wish-list item that I had, big or small - conscious or subconsciously. It has fruit trees and raspberry bushes in the back, as well as an old school clothesline. Sliding mirror doors on the closets, which I wanted in the old house the entire time we owned it. TWO closets in the master bedroom. A kitchen that we can both move around & putter in at the same time, with butcher’s block counters! I mean, it put down the vibe and I picked it up hard. I knew I was sold – and I'm pretty sure Jake did too – when we walked upstairs and saw that the living room had an exposed BRICK WALL. Are you kidding me?! I was picturing bathing my future babies in the kitchen sink, and daydreaming about drinking wine in the backyard on a hot summer day before we even said our goodbyes. Did I mention it backs onto an orchard? A peaceful, beautiful ORCHARD. Literally, I’m in heaven. This house was waiting for us; all we had to do was find it. 

What I was doing when we were supposed to be inspecting the empty house.. Opportunist, 101.

We are so excited to start this new chapter together, to take this house and make it completely, entirely, 100% ours. Our space. Not to mention, we have so much room for activities!! The old condo was cute, and had its charm, but big & spacious it was NOT. I'm so excited to have space to grow in. I've been pinning up a storm & fantasizing for hours about ways to put it all together. You know the "We're too excited to sleep" Disneyland kids? That's me, with this house. Now, if only Anthropologie would get its act together and not charge $20 shipping to Canada. Keeping all your prices in USD is one kick in the gut, but that kind of shipping charge when I KNOW you have Canadian stores? I mean, I’m not going to say I’m mad, I’m just disappointed. Get it together.